The Purpose of Your American Freedom
The meaning behind the celebration of July 4th each year is too easily forgotten. Less than half of all adults in the U.S. today are “extremely proud” to be an American. Whether this comes as a surprise to you or not, many of us enjoy the prosperity that the American system has brought with abundant cookouts, firework shows and enough beer to live on for a week, but a moment of remembrance for the special day seems to slip through the cracks. This day is not just another a day off from work or an excuse for drinking. Rather it calls on us to stop, look around at what we have and take a thoughtful look back at what got us here: The courage, the blood, the sacrifice and the devotion of those that went before us to raise up freedom, justice and peace for the millions that would follow.
However, there is more to this remembrance than simply paying our founders the respects they deserve. It is for us. We must understand our nation’s great founding, learn from the truths it holds and recognize the enormous cost that gave us our freedoms to instill in us a noble sense of gratitude.
Before the Declaration of Independence, the colonists of America were subject to the tyrannical rule of Great Britain. Virtually all economic activity in the colonies was controlled and regulated by British mercantilism. The distant government imposed taxes on the colonists without their consent, silenced those that stood against the infringement of the people’s rights, and even made attempts to confiscate their guns and ammunitions. The colonies were being strangled from thousands of miles away. After repeated failed petitions to subdue these oppressions on fair terms, the colonists had had enough. It became time to form a Union independent from the British crown.
The members of the Continental Congress came together to discuss these injustices and declare themselves independent states. However, the founders understood that this new nation would not be an extension of Great Britain. It should be a refuge for all that come seeking deliverance from tyrannical rule. Therefore, the nation must be framed around an idea — the same idea — one of virtue, liberty and justice. Never before in the history of the world has a country been birthed only out of an idea. Always, they had been formed by a common people, tongue or tribe.
The birth of America was far different. There were certain absolutes the founders believed must be protected at all costs — that the purpose of government was not to give anyone rights, but instead, was to protect the rights already given to them.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal: that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights: that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness: that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed: that whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it…”
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness would be more clearly defined by the Bill of Rights drafted in the years following. But, the idea that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with rights that should never be taken away was revolutionary in any form of government that had existed hitherto. The founders, as well as millions of Americans today, believed that these rights preexisted government. They were bestowed upon us by God, Himself. Without God, from where would these rights come? Government hasn’t given mankind these rights. Any government that believes that it has will just as easily strip him of them. The founders saw fit that it be the sole purpose of government to protect these rights, and from that idea came a nation that prospered beyond imagination.
But this all came with a cost. The members of Congress knew well they were signing their death warrant when they wrote their names upon that document declaring independence. Five of them were tortured and killed for being traitors to the British crown. Twelve had their homes burned to the ground. Many lost their sons fighting for independence, while another nine died themselves in the fighting. These men pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to fight for this idea of liberty and for a set of eternal principles that would define America.
However, the founders never thought themselves to be alone in their efforts to form this independent Union. The sovereign guidance of God was always leading them. We find consistently in the founding documents reference and reverence to “God,” the “Supreme Judge,” “Creator,” “Divine Providence” and other Judeo-Christian doctrines. The fear and veneration they held for God humbled them and moved them to develop a nation framed around and for a virtuous and charitable people — one that could not have been developed on any other grounds.
The founders believed God was necessary for freedom. Even Thomas Jefferson, perhaps the least religious of all the founders, rhetorically asked, “Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a connection in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath?”
He believed, along with many others, that our liberties can only be secured by God, for it is from Him that they originate, and if the people lose this understanding, it is at that point when their liberties will begin to die.
John Adams bluntly stated that “our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
The founders didn’t fight for a nation only for the sake of freeing themselves from the grip of tyranny. They were fighting, praying and sacrificing for a place that would become a beacon of hope around the world. They weren’t simply fighting over land, they were fighting for what is good, honorable and true.
This vision, this dedication, this sacrifice is what would lead to free more people from tyranny than any other country in the history of the world. Moreover, this system enabled the near perfection of free-market capitalism which would go on to create more wealth for more people than any other society ever established on Earth. Now, here we are, with freedoms that our ancestors didn’t have, and freedoms that we must continue to fight for so that our children have them, too.
So, on this July 4th, remember that vision. Remember that idea that was fought for and turned into a country that became a beacon of hope for millions around the world. Don’t take this country for granted. Patriotism in this country lies in that founding idea, and in the freedoms this country has to constantly improve itself and has done so since its birth.
So, be proud of your country. You’re an American.
